The Red Cross called Wednesday for safe and unhindered access to Gaza to bring desperately needed aid into the war-torn Palestinian territory wracked by hunger and where babies are freezing to death.
Heavy rain and flooding have ravaged the makeshift shelters in Gaza, leaving thousands with up to 30 centimetres (one foot) of water inside their damaged tents, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
The dire weather conditions were "exacerbating the unbearable conditions" in Gaza, it said, pointing out that many families were left "clinging on to survival in makeshift camps, without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets".
Citing the United Nations, the IFRC highlighted the deaths of eight newborn babies who had been living in tents without warmth or protection from the rain and falling temperatures, AFP reported.
Those deaths "underscore the critical severity of the humanitarian crisis there", IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain said in a statement.
"I urgently reiterate my call to grant safe and unhindered access to humanitarians to let them provide life-saving assistance," he said.
"Without safe access -- children will freeze to death. Without safe access -- families will starve. Without safe access -- humanitarian workers can't save lives."
According to a UN count, more than 330 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel unleashed its war there.
Chapagain issued an "urgent plea to all the parties... to put an end to this human suffering. Now".
The IFRC said the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) was striving to provide emergency health services and supplies to people in Gaza, with an extra sense of urgency during the cold winter months.
But it warned that "the lack of aid deliveries and access is making providing adequate support all but impossible".
The IFRC stressed that the closure of the main Rafah border crossing last May had had a dramatic impact on the humanitarian situation.
"Only a trickle of aid is currently entering Gaza," it warned.
It also lamented the "continuing attacks on health facilities across the Gaza Strip", which it said meant people were unable to access the treatment they need.
"In the north of Gaza, there are now no functioning hospitals," it said.
The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity warned that access to healthcare had also become "seriously compromised" in parts of the West Bank. It was seeing "a dramatic decline in children's mental health", it added.
It pointed in a statement to the drastic increase in restrictions imposed by Israeli forces since the start of the war in Gaza. In particular, it highlighted the situation in the Jaber neighbourhood inside the H2 area of Hebron City, which is under full Israeli military control.
MSF, which said it had been forced to suspend its operations for five months from December 2023, urged Israeli forces to "stop implementing restrictive measures that impede the ability of Palestinians to access basic services, including medical care".
MSF project coordinator Chloe Janssen warned that "although we are now able to provide care in the MSF clinic in Jaber neighbourhood, access remains challenging as our staff can be searched and delayed at the checkpoints to enter the H2 area.
"Access to medical care should never be arbitrarily denied, impeded or blocked."
